Michael Phelps Readies for 200 Fly, His First Race in Omaha

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS

Two days are down in Omaha at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, and Michael Phelps will finally get in for his first race of the meet with the 200 fly prelims.

Phelps scratched the 200 free prelims yesterday morning, making the 200 fly his first race. He’s the top seed, and will be swimming out of lane four in heat nine. Club Wolverine’s Kyle Whitaker and SwimMAC’s Tyler Clary will flank Phelps in that heat, though Jack Conger is the favorite to get a top two spot with Phelps in the final. Conger is in lane four, just one heat before Phelps.

The women’s 200 free, which will feature a blockbuster matchup between Katie LedeckyMissy Franklin, and Allison Schmitt, also has prelims this morning. They’re the top three seeds, so they’ll be in lane four for the last three heats– Schmitt in heat nine, Franklin in heat ten, and Ledecky in heat eleven.

Leah Smith, who was stellar in her 4:00 400 free last night, is actually looking like a sneak pick to join Ledecky in the 200 free top two if Schmitt and Franklin swim as lackluster as they did last night. Smith is in lane five in the last heat, right next to Ledecky.

The third and final prelims event is the women’s 200 IM, which will feature 400 IM champion Maya Dirado from night one. Ella Eastin, who was off of her best in the 400 IM, will try to bounce back and make a claim for a top two spot in the 200 IM, arguably her better race. She’ll be in the final heat next to Dirado, with 400 IM 3rd-place finisher Bethany Galat also in that heat.

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Lennart van Haaften
8 years ago

Phelps already qualified for 17 individual events in his career (1+6+5+5), let’s see if he can take it to 20.

SwimmerFoxJet
Reply to  Lennart van Haaften
8 years ago

Since he is only swimming three, 17.

Smitty
8 years ago

Michael, Time to bring home the bacon!! Who drives the boat?? Hooper drives the boat dam it!! LOL Go get em B-More!!

RJ Cid
8 years ago

dont sleep on leah smith! that 400 was phenom. ledecky and Franklin? allison? will be a fantastic 200 for womeimmango ledecky and Franklin

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  RJ Cid
8 years ago

I bank on Ledecky and Leah Smith for the 2 spots – and maybe Missy and Schmitty for the 2 next relay spots …

Zika Ziki
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
8 years ago

I am not at all optimistic MIssy will be in the top 4 in 200 free 🙁

shehulkswim
8 years ago

phelps is the GOAT (that stands for greatest of all tiem) and you can take that to the bank. excited to see his “victory lap” that will be this Olympics. we will never see another like him except for Michael Andrew.

SwimmerFoxJet
Reply to  shehulkswim
8 years ago

Not even Michael Andrew. Katie Ledecky is the only person who looks like she could upset Phelps’s medal or gold medal haul. I don’t know about the 8 golds, but perhaps medal count or gold medal count. Not saying she will, just saying that if anyone could possibly break that record, she could.

Irish Ringer
8 years ago

BTW, Phelps will swim a nice controlled 1:56 this morning. Maybe a 1:57 if the heats are slow.

Irish Ringer
8 years ago

200 fly, Shields scheduled to swim, only a matter of time before our guy PIANOBACK provides some commentary 🙂

Lol
Reply to  Irish Ringer
8 years ago

Why? Shields will qualify:)

Irish Ringer
Reply to  Lol
8 years ago

He will qualify for finals, but that piano is coming out.

Lol
Reply to  Irish Ringer
8 years ago

Wait and see my friend..

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Irish Ringer
8 years ago

False projections my friend – too early to say

Lol
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
8 years ago

Told you

Billabong
Reply to  Irish Ringer
8 years ago

You mean “Piano on his Head”…..which is even funnier. Shields is either going 1:54.7 tomorrow, or he has given up on the event, and will just fly in the 100m, swimming 50.75 to qualify first or second. I hope that its a bit of both, because he is the most underrated of all the US swimming stars.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Billabong
8 years ago

totally agree – he is a great butterflyer and a great swimmer .

Henrik
8 years ago

Phelps wont qualify, mark my words!

swimswammer
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

mkay… got ’em marked.

Cynthia mae Curran
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

Why is that, the other American men have not beaten him since Tom Malchow.

Irish Ringer
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

I don’t recall ever seeing any posts from HENRIK before, so I doubt you’ll be around tomorrow night after his ticket his punched to catch hell for this comment.

SwimmerFoxJet
Reply to  Irish Ringer
8 years ago

There was one, he said way back in August that Phelps must be doping because of his rise in swimming :/

Lazy Observer
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

I can’t bother to get riled by this. As my mother would say, either he will or he won’t.

shehulkswim
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

for your sake I hope this is a troll comment it is poor ignorance at its finest he will qualify mark my words

Billabong
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

He’ll punch his ticket all right. The real showdown will be in Rio. Save your predictions for the “Rumble in the Zika Jungle”.

Zika Ziki
Reply to  Billabong
8 years ago

Hey, that’s me!

SwimmerFoxJet
Reply to  Henrik
8 years ago

I wanna talk to you in about 1 hour and a half, I’ll bet he gets first. And I could bet Conger 2nd. I am worried about him, Andrew and Shields have upped their game, but he also had the 200 free.

tabitha
8 years ago

Commitswimming result site is awful –

Suzzie2012
Reply to  tabitha
8 years ago

That is understatement. It is the worst app I have used. The results and heat sheets are not up for hours, it crashes constantly and tells you” you are not allowed to write..” which makes it impossible to see anything within the app.

Nico
Reply to  Suzzie2012
8 years ago

Tabitha and Suzzie2012, sorry to hear you’re having a bad experience with the site. We fixed a few issues last night, so hopefully it’s working better for you now. If not, please email us at [email protected] and we will assist you right away. You can also call me directly at 215-353-0948.

Thanks,
Nico

Abbott
Reply to  tabitha
8 years ago

Here’s the perfect recipe for inducing fits of rage: Hide splits so that you have to click. each. swimmer’s. name. to see what should already be displayed. Then put some splits behind a paywall. Also a perfect recipe to get users to swear off the app forever.

Nico
Reply to  Abbott
8 years ago

Abbott, on the web, you can see all splits for free. On mobile, you can click on the time and the splits for the race will show up for you. Clicking on the athlete’s name takes you to their profile and “meet story” (what they’ve swam, what they’re swimming, etc.), which is a premium features.

But you can access all splits without paying the $5 🙂

If you have any other questions, just let me know and I’m happy to help!

Abbott
Reply to  Nico
8 years ago

My mistake. I was having to click on 400free results to see the splits, so I was autopilot clicking swimmer names on the shorter races not noticing the splits are next to the names for those. Thanks

Nico
Reply to  Abbott
8 years ago

No problem! For the longer races, it’s hard to fit all the splits on the same row as the name and final time, so if you click on the time (not the name), then you’ll see the detailed splits show up below. Click on the time again and the row closes back up.

All data that is presented by Omega PDFs is presented on our site for free.

Hope this helps, and thanks again.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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